We're taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch this weekend & to help us record our observations, we made these colourful bird pencil toppers. They'd make a great addition to any nature table or wildlife project, & what's really neat is that they make great puppets too!
Made from recycled materials & a pencil, these little birds are frugal to make & an ideal craft to share with a group of children. We made these recently at an after-school club & the children's creations were just beautiful.
To make them you'll need:
A cardboard box
Scraps of colourful material (we used felt)
Gloopy glue
Craft eyes
Sticky tape
A pencil
Start by drawing around the bird template onto your cardboard. You can find our free template here - Bird Pencil Template.
Once drawn & cut out, attach your pencil securely to one side of the cardboard using tape.
Before cutting your recycled fabric to make your design, have a think about the type of bird you wish to create. We decided to base ours on the wild birds we'd seen in our garden, so had a quick look at a selection of bird spotter books, making a note of the colours of feathers & beaks.
Once you've chosen your bird design you can choose how to cut out your feather shapes. You could either make small oval shapes like we did to create our feathers, or go big & fill in large sections of your bird template. Alternatively, you could colour the cardboard with pens/paint & add coloured feathers to create a wonderfully unique design.
We found it easier (& quicker) to cover one side of the template with glue & then stick on our feather shapes. The Big Garden Bird Watch Guide was great to use as a reference.
When we'd completed one side, we carefully turned the bird over & decorated the other side. You could wait for the first side to dry before decorating the second, but it's not necessary; just make sure you have the tabletop covered.
To make your bird beak you could use card or fabric & attach with glue. Add the eyes & your bird pencil is ready to go.
We loved making these & soon had quite a collection!
They have come in very handy for filling in our Big Garden Bird Watch activity sheet, & recording our findings.
These pencil toppers have been so much fun to create & use this weekend, & I'm sure they'll be popular for many weeks yet.
Making them gave us a great opportunity to talk about different birds, their habitats, food, & the impact of environmental conditions on the wildlife in our garden. It also made us consider what we can do to help the birds in our own backyard.
What a fun way to celebrate the wild birds in your garden & encourage an interest & care for local wildlife too!